Afghan women fight to get their names back with #WhereIsMyName

EDITOR:

Shira Jeczmien, London

“I joined the #WhereIsMyName campaign. My name is Akram. The name of the Mother of My Children? I will not say it even if I am ripped into pieces.” Wrote a male Afghan Facebook user on his status a few days ago.

In just a few pixelated sentences Akram has summarised a cultural tradition that erases women’s identities so systematically, that being ripped into pieces is a more comprehensible alternative. With this status he also undermines the power of a new social media activist campaign that is fighting to terminate Afghanistan’s custom where a woman’s name can never be revealed in public – not even on her grave; not even on her children’s birth certificates.

A group of Afghan women have launched a social media campaign with the hashtag #WhereIsMyName, encouraging women to regain the most basic of human rights: their identity. In a society of female repression and a fear of speaking up, this campaign wants to empower women to demand their name is acknowledged in their children’s birth certificates, on their medical prescription, or the simplest privilege of being called by their name. “Our society is full of injustice for women, basically everything is a taboo for us” says activist Bahar Sohaili, a prominent member of the campaign.

There are plenty of options for men to chose from when it comes to referring to their wives, sisters; mothers. Mother of Children, My Household, My Weak One or sometimes, My Goat, My Chicken or even My Milker – and regardless of their status, be they doctors, journalists or politician’s wives, the common address for Afghan women is Aunt. Breaking of this tradition is considered a violence worthy dishonour. The shame associated with publically saying a woman’s name runs so deep that some children don’t know their own mother’s name.

Thousands of Afghan authors, journalists, musicians and a few politicians have backed the campaign on social media with the support of growing access to Internet across the country. “There is a very influential generation of Afghans who are being exposed to the outside world and these young people are using every opportunity to challenge” said Niamatullah Ibrahimi, researcher of social and political movements in Afghanistan. Access to the web has spurred a profound movement of social change across the nation, and while the fight to challenge social norms so deeply rooted in society isn’t easy, #WhereIsMyName goes straight to the heart of it – hoping to bring back the names of powerful and brave women who have, for too long, been reduced to household, motherhood, wife.